NEW WEBSITE HOSTS LIBRARY OF CLASSICAL LIBERAL THOUGHT IN INDIA

NEW WEBSITE HOSTS LIBRARY OF CLASSICAL LIBERAL THOUGHT IN INDIA

India has a rich tradition of classical liberal thought, and Atlas Network partner Centre for Civil Society (CCS) launched a new website on Jan. 17 at the first annual Asia Students for Liberty Conference. The project aims to revive these ideas and bring them to greater prominence in India’s modern political world.

The new website, IndianLiberals.in, serves as an online library of classical liberal writing by Indian scholars who “stood for the liberty of thought and action and against central planning,” the group announced.

“The Indian Liberals stood for the liberty of thought and action and against central planning,” the release continued. “In [the] current scenario, such liberties are in constant threat, which is not any different to the hubristic actions of the central planners during the socialistic pattern of society adopted by the Nehru government. It’s of utmost importance to go back to these heroes of freedom and acquire their wisdom through their powerful writings.”

The site already has content from classical liberal thinkers in India dating back to the early 19th century, much of it available in multiple languages, including English and several regional Indian languages: Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, and Tamil.

“We aim to digitise 50,000 pages in total, supplemented by audio and video content of prominent liberals, including personal stories of the work and struggles of Indian liberals who lived through the planning era, that is lesser known to us today, if not totally forgotten already,” the CCS release explained. “The portal shall help preserve often unknown but a very rich Indian liberal tradition and understand the relevance of the writings in today’s context.”

As a young generation of liberty activists grows in India, it will increasingly have reason to turn to the ideas of earlier classical liberal thinkers who blazed an intellectual path for them to follow. IndianLiberals.in provides them with a solid foundation of thoughtful work on which to build a better future.